Legoland forced to drop Michael Jackson tribute

CARLSBAD:
Michael Jackson won't be immortalized in miniature at Legoland.

Plans to put a tiny model of the late King of Pop in the park's popular Miniland Southern California exhibit have been scrapped permanently because of “unresolved legal issues,” park spokeswoman Julie Estrada said yesterday.

Estrada said she was not able to discuss the nature of the legal issues, including whether or not the problem was a copyright issue involving Jackson's estate.

“It's a legal thing, that's pretty much all I can say,” she said.

The park had built five 4-inch prototypes of Jackson in different stages of his career, including his infamous “Moonwalk.” They were pictured on CNN's
ireports.com
, and readers were asked to vote for their favorite.

The most popular model was going to be installed in the park today.

Model builders at the park were constructing a section for Miniland Southern California that would show Jackson stepping out of a limousine in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, surrounded by fans and paparazzi. The theater marquee was going to read “Thriller.”

The project was announced by Legoland officials Wednesday. They said they wanted to honor Jackson's “historical contributions to the world of music.”

Other celebrities who have been commemorated in Lego figurines in Miniland U.S.A. include President Barack Obama, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.

Miniland U.S.A. replicates seven areas of the United States with 20 million Lego pieces.

— S.S.

NCTD to pursue bidding for bus-division operator

OCEANSIDE:
The board of directors for the North County Transit District will consider contracting out its bus operations to increase service and save money.

The board voted 8-0 yesterday to direct staff to prepare a bid proposal.

Bus operations will consume $42 million of the district's $88 million budget for the fiscal year that began Wednesday.

The district lost about $10 million in state transit assistance funding and $10 million from declining sales tax revenues caused by the economic recession.

District staff said it won't be known how much the district might save through outsourcing its bus operations until it gets bids for the service. Estimates say it could reduce the hourly cost of operating a bus by 12 percent to 18 percent.

Outsourcing would encompass drivers, mechanics and administration.

The district contracts out its Coaster commuter train and Sprinter light-rail service.

— M.B.

$10 tickets for concerts to be offered online

Live Nation, which owns Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, will offer a limited supply of specially discounted $10 tickets for seven upcoming shows at the venue. The reduced prices will only be offered between 10 a.m. tomorrow and 5 p.m. Sunday, and the tickets will only be available online at livenation.com.

The concerts at Cricket for which $10 tickets are available are Incubus, with The Duke Spirit, Thursday; Rise Against, Rancid and Billy Talent; July 10; 311 and Ziggy Marley, July 11; Slightly Stoopid, Snoop Dogg, Stephen Marley and Mickey Avalon, July 25; The Fray, Jack's Mannequin and Vedera, July 28; Nickelback, Hinder, Papa Roach and Saving Abel, Sept. 5; and Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne, Oct. 2.

— G.V.

Coronado Naval Base has change in command

CORONADO:
Capt. Yancy Lindsey took over command of Coronado Naval Base from Capt. Anthony Gaiani in a ceremony yesterday at North Island Naval Air Station.

Lindsey, a native of Phoenix, holds degrees from the University of California Berkeley and the University of San Diego. He commanded a Point Mugu-based squadron of E2-C Hawkeyes from 2005 to 2007.

Most recently, he was chief of the missile-defense division for the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

Gaiani, of Lewiston, N.Y., is a graduate of the Citadel, a South Carolina military college. He piloted the F-14 Tomcat and commanded a Virginia-based fighter squadron during the early stages of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He took the helm at Coronado in 2006 and, after a promotion to rear admiral, is slated to become commander of Navy Region Midwest.

39 businesses included in immigration probe

Thirty-nine businesses in San Diego and Imperial counties are being targeted for audits of their employment records by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the agency.

The agency announced Wednesday that it was presenting 652 businesses nationwide with notices that it will inspect their I-9 forms, on which employees' identity documents are recorded. These businesses were chosen for audits based on leads and other investigative means, agency officials said.

The inspections are part of a new strategy that is intended to shift the focus of workplace immigration enforcement from employees to the employers who hire unauthorized workers, with federal agents pursuing more criminal cases against employers.

ICE officials would not identify the local businesses facing inspections. —L.B.

Union-Tribune garners journalism society honors

The San Diego Union-Tribune
and its Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, won more than two dozen awards from the Society of Professional Journalists at the local chapter's annual awards banquet last month.

Copy editor James Laurin took two first-place awards for his headlines and Yvette De La Garza won three first-place awards for her online photos and videos.

SignOnSanDiego.com
won first place for its entertainment offerings and for its design. The Web site and paper also won top honors for the special section “Season's Best.”

In all, SignOnSanDiego staff members received five first-place awards.

The newspaper swept the awards for features, education and business writing by daily publications. It also took the top prizes among dailies for investigative reporting, review/criticism, news/feature series and column writing. In all, the newspaper received nine first-place awards.